Development of an Affordable Quality Housing Assessment Model within a Smart Growth Framework

This project aims to develop a practical and systematic model for assessing the quality of life outcomes of affordable housing developments within a Smart Growth framework.

The project responds to a critical challenge in rapidly growing metropolitan areas, where increasing urban density, rising land values, and limited resources make it difficult to deliver housing that is both affordable and capable of supporting the wellbeing of low income households.

The project is grounded in the principles of Smart Growth, which promote compact urban development, efficient land use, and the integration of housing within existing metropolitan areas. While this approach can improve infrastructure efficiency and reduce urban sprawl, it may also intensify land scarcity and increase housing costs. As a result, developers and policymakers require more effective tools to ensure that affordable housing projects not only meet cost requirements, but also enhance the overall quality of life of residents.

The core objective of the project is to design an assessment model that enables decision makers to evaluate and compare proposed housing developments before implementation. The model is based on a set of quality of life indicators derived from established frameworks, covering key dimensions such as employment, income, housing conditions, health, family life, safety, environment, transport, education, and leisure. Each proposed housing project is assessed against these indicators using a structured scoring system, allowing for a transparent and consistent comparison of different proposals.

A binary evaluation approach is adopted within the model, where each indicator is assigned a value based on whether the proposed development is expected to contribute positively to that aspect of quality of life. The aggregated scores provide an overall measure of the potential social, economic, and environmental performance of each project. This enables planners, developers, and government agencies to identify projects that are most likely to deliver meaningful improvements in living conditions for low income populations.

In addition, the project examines the role of housing subsidies in supporting affordable housing development. It highlights the importance of allocating subsidies to projects that genuinely require financial support and that demonstrate the greatest potential to improve quality of life outcomes. By integrating the assessment model into the decision making process, the project seeks to enhance the effectiveness and transparency of subsidy allocation.

The expected outcome of this project is a robust and user friendly assessment model that can guide housing developers and policymakers in selecting and designing affordable housing projects. Ultimately, the project contributes to the development of more sustainable, inclusive, and high quality urban housing systems, supporting low income households not only in accessing housing, but also in improving their overall living conditions and long term opportunities.

Keywords: Smart Growth, Affordable Housing, Quality of Life, Low Income Households, Housing Assessment Model